Is lesbian sex “real sex”? If you have to ask you might want to read the new book You Can Tell Just By Looking and 20 Other Myths about LGBT Life and People (Beacon Press) by Michael Bronski, Ann Pellegrini, and Michael Amcio.

In “You Can Tell Just by Looking”, three scholars and activists come together to unpack enduring, popular, and deeply held myths about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, culture, and life in America. Myths, such as “All Religions Condemn Homosexuality” and “Transgender People Are Mentally Ill,” have been used to justify discrimination and oppression of LGBT people. Others, such as “Homosexuals Are Born That Way,” have been embraced by LGBT communities and their allies. In discussing and dispelling these myths—including gay-positive ones—the authors challenge readers to question their own beliefs and to grapple with the complexities of what it means to be queer in the broadest social, political, and cultural sense.

This week, Slate excerpted a long essay from the book. Check it out here. [Slate]

Song and Dance Man

Do you like your murderous sociopaths served with a little song and dance? Then make way for the musical adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho, which debuts at London’s Alameida theater on December 3rd. Actor Matt Smith, of Doctor Who fame, will star as the Phil Collins loving, serial killer Patrick Bateman. Gay scribe Robert Aguirre-Sacasa is writing the book for the show and Duncan Sheik is providing the music. [Bleeding Cool News]

In an essay published on The Advocate website this week, trans author and activist Julia Serano “decimates the often employed claim that ‘all gender is performance.'” Taken from her new book Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive(Seal), the essay smartly examines the “oversimplification” of gender deconstruction. Read the complete essay here. [The Advocate]